The tool according to the invention is a milling cutter, drill or reaming tool in the widest sense, that is to say a tool which is set in rotation and is used for stock removal by machining. To machine the material to be cut, a plurality of cutting inserts are provided on the parent body of the tool. Said cutting inserts are usually made of sintered materials or of cutting materials produced by a metallurgical melting process and have at least one cutting edge. In order to ensure a long service life of the cutting inserts used and a high quality of the machined surface of the workpiece, it is important that the cutting edges of all the cutting inserts of a tool are correctly oriented. If the cutting edges acting on the workpiece are not exactly oriented axially and/or radially, a uniform surface is not obtained. If some of the cutting inserts project further in the direction of the surface of the workpiece than other cutting inserts, the cutting edges which project further are prematurely worn.
It is known from the prior art to attach each cutting insert to the parent body in an individually adjustable manner. This enables the user of the tool to correctly orient the cutting inserts individually. From the multiplicity of known designs, US 2007/0127992 A1 and US 2008 0107493 A1 may be mentioned as examples. Shown in the first-mentioned document is a milling cutter in which each cutting insert is attached to a holder, which is arranged in turn in a receptacle of the parent body of the milling cutter. An adjusting screw is provided behind the rear side, facing away from the cutting insert, of each holder, by means of which adjusting screw the position of each holder can be set individually in the axial direction. The second document mentioned discloses an adjusting device which can be used in drilling tools, milling cutters and lathe tools. Here, too, a holder to which the corresponding cutting insert is attached is used. The holder is fastened to the tool at its end remote from the cutting insert and is provided with a bending region, such that the end provided with the cutting insert can be adjusted outward in the radial direction. Provided for the adjustment is an adjusting screw which is provided with an eccentric surface and which can displace an adjusting slide provided with a wedge surface, a pressure piece bearing in turn against the wedge surface of the adjusting slide, this pressure piece interacting with the holder. A common feature of these solutions and the other known solutions from the prior art is that each individual cutting insert has to be adjusted manually. The effort involved here is also quite considerable when two cutting inserts are attached to a holder; in this case, too, complicated manual adjustment must be carried out.
As an alternative to the manual adjustment of each individual cutting insert, it is known to use cutting inserts which are produced with high precision and which are arranged in receptacles which are likewise produced with corresponding precision. In this way, the manual adjustment of each individual cutting insert can be avoided. However, the close tolerances which have to be maintained during both the production of the cutting inserts and the production of the tool require a very high production outlay, which leads to high production costs.